Nervous Noob

Hey all. So I am thinking it is time to upgrade to GB seeing as how our update has been pushed back to an unforeseen date. I know nothing about rooting though and am fairly terrified to destroy my phone.

I had previously installed z4root which worked fine and i used it to rename some .apk in the startup. While i am confident in my ability to follow a guide, I guess i am just overwhelmed with the number of different roms.
1. How do you decide which one to choose?
2. If a rom doesn't work out for you, how difficult is it to switch?
3. do you need to completely wipe the phone again?

Hey all. So I am thinking it is time to upgrade to GB seeing as how our update has been pushed back to an unforeseen date. I know nothing about rooting though and am fairly terrified to destroy my phone.

I had previously installed z4root which worked fine and i used it to rename some .apk in the startup. While i am confident in my ability to follow a guide, I guess i am just overwhelmed with the number of different roms.
1. How do you decide which one to choose?
2. If a rom doesn't work out for you, how difficult is it to switch?
3. do you need to completely wipe the phone again?

Click to expand...

1. Just flash a rom, try it out, and if you like it, keep it. Its all personal preference so you must choose the right one for you.
2. It is very easy to switch. just boot into recovery (using Kousch's bootstrapper) and wipe cache/data and install the new rom.
3. you need to wipe data before installing a new rom. Get Titanium backup from the market(for free) and it will back up all of your apps even when you switch roms. Make sure you back your contacts up either on your sd card or google too.

Really, custom roms are the way to go. I reccommend trying either HeXen or Angel. but its all up to you.

Also, do you have a droid 2 or a droid 2 global? I saw droid 2 in your profile.

I just back up everything with titanium. and if you just have a regular d2 i would go with liberty rom first and see if you like it. I believe they have a pretty stable liberty gingerbread. But whats nice about all custom roms, not just angel or hexen, they improve battery life and the themes are very nice. Lots of performance tweaks as well. You will find those with most custom roms.

I guess i am finding the bootstrapping section to backup my room a bit confusing. so you i use bootstrap to backup the current rom (stock) i am using at the moment before putting the new rom in. after adding the new rom, if i want to go back to stock i run bootstrap and find the previous rom or something?

"get your phone to the exact state it was in at this point....all you would do is unroot, remove a few apps, and you are totally stock and ready to return it should you need to. Of course you can always go the SBF route as well."

just unrooting gets me back to the previous rom? what does that mean remove a few apps?

I guess i am finding the bootstrapping section to backup my room a bit confusing. so you i use bootstrap to backup the current rom (stock) i am using at the moment before putting the new rom in. after adding the new rom, if i want to go back to stock i run bootstrap and find the previous rom or something?

"get your phone to the exact state it was in at this point....all you would do is unroot, remove a few apps, and you are totally stock and ready to return it should you need to. Of course you can always go the SBF route as well."

just unrooting gets me back to the previous rom? what does that mean remove a few apps?

Click to expand...

When you make a backup, you can open the bootstrapper app and go back to that exact state that it was in before. to completely unroot, you need to remove the bootstrapper(this app blocks verizon updates etc...).

someone recommended using MyBackup since it backed up contacts, messages, and i think app settings.

Click to expand...

I have only used Titanium for app backup and I trust it. If I was going to try out MyBackup I would back up an app I did not worry too much about e.g. a free game after playing a level. Then delete it and reinstall from backup and verify the data was there (does it see I already played one level?)

All the disclaimers are there not to "scare" you but to remind you that you are reponsible for the results. You should verify things work on your own. Don't wait till you need 911 to see if your can actually call and talk to somone after your new rom is installed.

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